What did you do on WWSIPD?

Maybe some of this?

World Wide Spin In Public Day 2011, Rosa Parks Circle, Grand Rapids, MI

Busy, Busy, Busy...and a fabulous birthday

Happy Birthday to me!

Has your week been super crazy?  Have you stopped and taken stock of what you've accomplished during that crazy?  It may surprise you. At the end of each day I take stock.  I check my mental to-do list to be sure I've accomplished everything for the day.  I usually have a planning session while I'm in the shower in the morning.  When do you do your best planning?

My prize from Emily's stash!

It was my birthday on Tuesday, I was 55 shiver.  I'm officially out of the most desired demo in the media business.  I've not decided if that's good or bad.  I'm not sad about it though.  This past year has been one of the best of my life on the personal level.  My family is healthy and on the average, successful.  I have a great group of friends that share my passion for all things fiber.  The pooches are well.  And I'm still getting up and going to work every day.  Life is certainly good!  Thank you all for being a part of it.

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On Monday evening I visited Grand Alpaca Co with Paula and the Woodland Weavers and Spinners. The Talbots have a beautiful place with amazing animals.  The alpacas all know their names, 150 alpacas, that's a lot of names.

Isn't she beautiful?

Tuesday, the big day, included a road trip to Howell, MI to check out The Spinning Loft.  We had a nice lunch at Mr. B's Rustic Tavern (thanks again Paula) then made a stop at Sticks and Strings in Lansing (super cute shop and real nice folks) on the way back home.  The picture at the top of today's post is the stuff I gave myself for my birthday.  I finished up the day hanging out with the GR Yarnies at A Grand Skein's Grand Opening.  It was great fun!

Mixed in with all this fun there was some knitting and spinning.  I'm on a headband knitting kick, 2 adult and 1 baby-size so far.  The first one...

and the spinning...

Have you taken stock of what you've accomplished his week?  Make a list it'll surprise you. No task is too small to make note of.  There could be a prize involved.  Winner could be announced next Fiber Arts Friday so you might have til then to tell me about your list-making habits - or lack thereof.

Be sure to visit Andrea's blog and see all the crafty peeps that join in celebrating Fiber Arts Friday.

9-11-11

Taking the slow route

I'm taking Beth Smith's advice...combing my Jacob instead of carding it.  I'm ecstatic with the result...no neps!  The down side is, combing 4 Jacob fleeces may take the rest of my days...

In other news...the little LadyBug bag is finished.

and I've been spinning this pretty single with some roving I bought from Winding Wool Creek Fiber.  She makes the most amazing multi-color roving. click to biggie-size photos

My friend Emily has a new Etsy shop...you should go visit her!  Here.  You'll like her stuff, it's very pretty.

I spun and plied this past week too...

The dogs have been super lazy, maybe it's the cooler weather that lets them rest better.

 I know I've been sleeping better since the temperature dropped to autumn levels this week.  Guess it's time to dig out some long pants.

Have a great weekend!  Thanks for stopping by.  Go check out the Fiber Arts Friday peeps.

Proper preparation is important and time saving

Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance!   I learned this phrase about 25 years ago when I was selling soap.  A good principle and had I followed it I mightn't be dealing with this...

those dark spots?  They're neps, little balls of tangled wool.  Not what you want in your batts of pretty Jacob fleece.  ugh

Looking at it from this angle without back-lighting you can see how they look on the surface of the batt.  Little blobs...dammit!  I will be picking them out of the fleece as I spin, which slows down the spinning.

If only I had done the following...

Lesson #1...lay your fleece out on a large surface with 1 1/2" to 2" holes all over and shake the daylights out of it.  This procedure gets lots of excess dirt and veggie matter out of the fleece prior to washing.  It will also get rid of lots of the dreaded second cuts.

A lesson learned.  It truly is worth the extra time and effort to get those short bits out of the fleece BEFORE you wash it, then pick it, then card it.  All of these make the neps more determined to stay in the fiber and make it impossible to make a super smooth batt.   Or pile-o-batts as the case is here.

On an experimental photo note, I've decided that I like the following photo without the flash best.  It seems more interesting to me.

Which one do you like better?

LittleDog says, Hey! have a fun and safe Labor Day Weekend! and be sure to shake out those second cuts.  And remember...Even a bad crafty day is a good day!

Hop on over to Wisdom Begins In Wonder to see lots of other fibery peeps.  Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

So happy to see you Friday!

It's been a whale of a week.  Too much work at work and not enough work being done at home.  And I have a ton of work to do at home...serious work, with tools!

See...

My BFF Paula loaned me this Mark IV carder while she's on vacation in New Joisey.  She got it from a guy she bought a bunch of tools from over by Lansing.  I have big plans for this sweet little machine.  I'll be adding to my pile-o-Jacob batts this weekend.

I have a bag-o-fleece picked and ready to card so I'm hoping that by Sunday evening I'll be ready for some serious Jacob spinning.

I'm thinking I'll make myself a new and improved (and considerably larger) Adult Surprise Jacket.  I've out-grown the one that's hanging in my office right now.  sniff   I think the different shades of fleece would make a nice subtle stripe in the pattern.

The Michigan Fiber Festival was awesome!  The fleece combing class was informative and quite a lot of fun.  Beth Smith is a hoot!  We combed, very carefully cause those combs are sharp as hell,  and spun Romney, Wensleydale and Merino.  The Wensleydale was the most difficult to get started as the locks are so long and tight but once I got it started was lovely.  It was heavenly to spin and shiney!  You should try some!  Just be sure to have your oil/water mister handy cause it really gets static-y.  I also got some pointers on carding a better Jacob batt too.  And I loved Beth's dress, it looked very comfy and crafty with a red apron.  She posed for us with her newly acquired sheep skin...

please excuse the crappy iPhone pic

There were a few small purchases made...

 Merino from Winding Wool Creek Fiber

Suri Alpaca from Wonder Why Alpacas

I also picked up the Shetland fleece I had reserved in the spring.  Since it was a show fleece I had to wait to pick it up until after MFF.  Out of 20 Shetland fleeces Ginny Weasley #69 came in 3rd place.  The nice shepherd, Mike, from Windswept Farm let me keep the white ribbon too!  (said he had a gazillion of them, LOL)  Ginny is a pretty fawn Shetland.  I imagine she must look a lot like the sheep in the first link of this paragraph.


I hope you all had an exciting week and did some fun things.  I'd love to hear about it.  If you'd like to meet other fiber enthusiasts hop on over to Andrea's blog and check them out.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday everybody!

Nothing cuter than a pink Pug tongue!

It's MFF weekend!

I'll be taking a class on combing fleece at Michigan Fiber Festival on Saturday.  Taught by Beth Smith from Spinning Loft it should be fun and informative.  It's the first class I've taken at MFF.  In past years it's been a trip to see sheep, feel pretty yarn and fleece and eat some fair food.  It's also a great time to meet-up with folks I haven't seen since last year's festival.  I'll be picking up a Shetland fleece that I reserved a couple months ago.  The sheep that grew the fleece  is #69 Ginny Weasley, isn't that a chuckle?  You can see her prettiness here.

Will I see some of you there?

Almost squealed about a package that arrived today from Sublime Stitching.  A variety of embroidery patterns designed by Jenny Hart.  I especially like the Dia de los Muertos drawings, the sugar skulls are awesome.

a nice variety of iron-on designs, something I haven't done in many years.  Isn't it fun to get back to a craft you haven't plied in a long while?  This will be a good take-a-long project that can be worked on during lunch.

Work has steadily progressed on the Kill Bill sock.  I've actually bound off. twice.  First bind off was way too tight and the cuff was not what I wanted so I unbound and tinked back about 12 rows and did 2 x 2 rib and bound off.  At that point I realized that the directions I was following were totally out of wack...so I just ripped back and picked up my stitches after removing the waste yarn that was not nearly in the correct place.  I'll be knitting a couple more inches then adding the waste yarn again.  Hopefully I'll be on target this time.  I'll certainly know how to knit a toe-up, after-thought heel sock by the time this thing is done.

There has been carding of Jacob this week after the return of Big Tom from the wilds of Missouri.  Also tried my hand at combing some black Jacob fleece...including a little practice with a diz which proved to be quite educational.  Hopefully, when I'm finished with my class on Saturday I'll have much better technique.

Thank you all so much for stopping by today.  Have a Happy Fiber Arts Friday and be sure to visit the other crafty peeps who participate over on Andrea's blog.